Argument
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Counter-argument when using FreeRTOS
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"Open source software is badly supported"
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Real Time Engineers Ltd. directly support FreeRTOS through an active and free support forum. It is also possible
to obtain commercial support from a large
engineering company - providing choice and complete peace of mind.
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"Incorporating open source means you risk having to open source your entire application"
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FreeRTOS is licensed such that only the RTOS kernel is open source. Application code that uses the RTOS kernel can remain closed source and
proprietary - provided the functionality it provides is distinct from that provided by the RTOS kernel itself.
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"Open source software ends up costing much more (the total cost of ownership argument)"
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FreeRTOS is completely free to download, experiment with and
deploy. Each port comes with a pre-configured demo application to
ensure you start with a known good and working project that can then
be tailored to meet your needs - getting you up and running very quickly. Should at some
point you require commercial licensing or support then packages are
available at very competitive prices, so you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.
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"Open source software is badly written"
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FreeRTOS is commercial grade, stable and reliable.
There are even safety critical versions based on it, with improvements
from the safety critical certification being fed back into the open
source code base (although not the new safety related features).
FreeRTOS conforms to a
strict coding standard,
and a coding philosophy that ensures non-deterministic actions never executes
in an interrupt or in a critical section.
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"Open source code becomes fragmented, with many different versions available"
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The FreeRTOS release procedure is very tightly controlled
with all official ports being updated simultaneously. Current and past
releases are available in .zip files. The head revision is available
from a publicly accessible SVN repository. Naturally, occasionally
errors are made, but these are quickly spotted by the large user base
(more than 6000 downloads per month [very conservative figure
given]) and are documented as soon as they are brought to our
attention.
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"Use of open source code leaves you at risk of IP
infringement"
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Only code of known origin is included in official versions. If
you are still concerned about IP infringement, purchase a commercial
license to receive standard indemnification.
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"Open source projects have no longevity"
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Neither do some commercial products! Unlike commercial equivalents, the FreeRTOS license allows you
to continue to use FreeRTOS software forever, at no cost. FreeRTOS has been around since before 2003, and is still
growing!
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